Income tax only recovers halfway; shortfall is $267M

Income tax payments in May appeared to recover only about half of the shortfall from the delay that pushed the filing deadline out of April in 13 New Jersey counties, according to a look at revenue data published Thursday.

Income tax collections in May were $294 million ahead of budget, up 60% from what was expected. But if April and May are taken together, the state was still almost $264 million short of expectations on the income tax this spring.

You might recall how the Treasury Department reported a month ago that income-tax collections in April were $558 million, or more than 25 percent, behind expectations. Some of those payments slipped into May, because the March floods prompted the IRS and state to extend the filing deadline in some places.

Before the spring slide, income tax collections had matched or exceeded expectations five straight months.

Treasurer Andrew Sidamon-Eristoff had told the Legislature last month the revised revenue forecast — for all taxes, not just income taxes — had been trimmed by $325 million. The Office of Legislative Services said the state would be $402 million short. Through May, with a month to go, the gap is $267 million.